MUMBAI, Oct. 7 -- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has completed a milestone in its electoral preparations with the finalisation of ward boundaries. The official notification detailing the delimitation of Mumbai's 227 municipal wards was published on Monday, October 6, marking the end of weeks of review and public consultations. Following the release of the draft ward map earlier this year, the BMC had invited citizens to submit objections and suggestions. The civic body received 494 responses, substantially fewer than the nearly 800 received during the 2017 civic elections. Although many residents sought boundary adjustments or raised concerns about polling booths and reservations, the overall number of wards remains unchanged, at 227, consistent with the last elections held in February 2017. Certain boundaries have been adjusted at a micro level, and some localised changes have been made to ensure fairer distribution of the population across wards. The structure of the electoral map however has not undergone any major changes. "Most of the feedback centred on changes to include and exclude certain areas in the ward," a senior BMC official explained. "There were also proposals to increase the number of polling booths and adjustments for reservations." He said about half the suggestions were incorporated, while repetitive or irrelevant inputs were set aside. The senior civic official claimed that the relatively lower number of objections compared to 2017 suggests greater public acceptance of this year's draft map, as well as improved efficiency in the process. After the revised ward boundaries were finalised, they were submitted to the State Election Commission (SEC) and the state Urban Development Department (UDD) for approval. The SEC granted its sanction just ahead of October 6, paving the way for the BMC to publish the final notification and updated ward maps on its website. The timing of the final notification is critical. According to BMC sources, the civic elections are expected to take place by mid-January 2026, in line with a apex court order to conduct local body elections in Maharashtra by January 31, 2026. With the delimitation now complete, the city's political machinery is expected to kick into high gear....